284 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA [No. 55 



wealth of the fanners about as much as their destruction of game 

 diminishes the bag of the sportsmen. It is difficult to balance these 

 accounts to the satisfaction of all, and it is perhaps well that foxes 

 are not more numerous in the wild state. In captivity the silver, 

 black, and cross foxes are proving profitable fur producers, and 

 fox farms are increasing in number in the Northern States and 

 would be well suited to the Canadian and Transition Zone areas of 

 Oregon. 



VULPES FULVUS MACROURUS BAIED 



ROCKY MOUNTAIN RED Fox 



Vulpes macrourus Baird, Rept. Stansbury Exped. to Great Salt Lake, p. 309, 

 1852. Mamm. North Amer., p. 30, 1857. 



Type. From Wasatch Mountains, bordering Great Salt Lake Valley, Utah. 

 A hunter's skin purchased by the Captain Stansbury Expedition in 1849 or 

 1850. Cataloged in 1860. 



General characters. Larger and longer tailed than the eastern red fox, 

 and paler fulvous or more yellowish, in the light phase, but more inclined 

 to be dark or of the cross fox phase. Larger with heavier skull and teeth 

 than the very similar cascadensis. In light phase it is pale buffy yellow along 

 sides, sides of neck and cheeks, but always with darker fulvous across shoulders 

 and along back, rump, and base of tail straw yellow, tail buffy gray or dusky 

 with white tip, lower parts whitish or dusky gray, back of ears and feet black, 

 a black line running half way up leg. In the cross fox phase it is yellowish 

 fulvous on sides and belly, and over rump, dusky or black along middle of 

 back, and across shoulders, and on throat, breast, and most of tail except 

 white tip; feet, legs, and nose are blackish or somewhat grizzled with white- 

 tipped hairs. Silver phase has all black except white tip of tail and white 

 subterminal bands on long hairs over back. Black phase is glossy black all over 

 except white tip of tail. 



Measurements. Young male from Wind River Mountains, Wyo. : Total 

 length, 1,015 mm ; tail, 461 ; foot, 172. Weight about 8 to 12 pounds. 



Distribution and habitat. The Rocky Mountain region from New 

 Mexico to Montana and west to Idaho and the Blue Mountains, 

 usually in open parks and meadows of the mountain ranges but in 

 places down in meadow valleys along streams (fig. 64). Not found 

 in deserts or arid valleys. Several skulls and summer skins from 

 the Blue Mountains are clearly of this more robust Rocky Mountain 

 form and not the light, slender Cascade fox. The skin of a breed- 

 ing female taken by Elmer Williams on July 25. 1923, in Big Sheep 

 Basin, 16 miles south of Joseph, Oreg., is in the typical cross fox 

 phase, with much black on back, over shoulders, and along throat 

 and breast, with light yellow cheeks and lower base of tail, rich 

 fulvous sides and belly, and black feet, legs, and face. The belly 

 shows a pinkish tinge of fur, as usual in nursing foxes, coyotes, and 

 wolves. Another skin from Big Sheep Basin and one from Wallowa 

 are both in the light-red phase, typical of macrourus. 



Red foxes were reported from the country about Elgin when 

 Preble and the writer were there in 1896, and in 1919 Cantwell 

 reported them in the Sled Springs and Grand Ronde section of 

 Wallowa County, and as occasionally taken about Wallowa Lake. 

 In 1920 a few red foxes were reported in the Blue Mountain and 

 Steens Mountain Valleys north and south of Malheur Lake, but 

 none in the sagebrush valley. 



General habits. The general habits of the Rocky Mountain red 

 fox in no way differ from those of the Cascade red fox except as 



